Can Productivity Growth
Still Flower After Sept. 11?

Updated Oct. 18, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

At the core of the success of the U.S. economy in the late 1990s was a long-awaited surge in productivity. After a decade of fumbling, American business figured out how to get more benefit than hassle from information technology, and more goods and services for each hour of work.

This burst of productivity growth, the most important economic factor in determining how well our children will live, was threatened before Sept. 11. The...